Characters
Rob Dunbar is the main character, and the story is told through his eyes, in first person. He's immortal, having lived since Persia's invasion of Greece in ancient history. However, he doesn't know why he's lived so long, nor is he invulnerable, as he can be hurt, and possibly killed, as well. Unfortunately, his dialogue isn't very compelling, although he does cover, at least in part, the trouble of living forever.
Baxter is the second primary character, and the impetus for Rob to get involved - he's the one who hires Rob, offering him the secret of his immortality. Very little is revealed about him at first, though it doesn't take long for it to be revealed that he is a cyborg, and has a grudge with the one of the main space-based corporations in the setting.
There are other characters, with the third 'major' character being Fay - but they're not itnroduced until well into the book.
Plot
The story starts off with Baxter trying to recruit Rob Dunbar to aid in negotiations to begin an asteroid mining company, revealing he knows Rob's secret, and in the subsequent fight, Rob manages to knock the both of them off the top of the skyscraper they'd met on. Over the next few chapters, Rob decides to work with Baxter, in return for knowledge about his immortality. It doesn't take long to complete this work, however, but Baxter then insists Rob has to help neogtiate a constitution for the upcoming settlement on Titan, to prevent a major corporation from turning them into feudal serfs. Other things are revealed during this time - the existence of AIs, the mere fact that interstellar settlements are possible, and more. More is revealed, or hinted at, over time throughout the story, of course, and Rob is embroiled rather deeply in the conflict surrounding the settlement.
Writing
Unfortunately, while the story itself is interesting in the broad terms, the writing doesn't bear up to it very well. Conversation and action are blended together, and not very smoothly. Emotion isn't conveyed very well, and the action writing tends to be bland. To make matters, it's difficult to tell the passage of time - it's not well delineated, often dropped into a paragraph with other things that overpower it, leaving one wondering about how a scene went from one thing to another with little notice. It can also be difficult to tell who is supposed to be speaking, sometimes, as large chunks of conversation can go by without a speaking part attributed to any of the present characters. Thanks to this, it simply couldn't grab my attention and keep it, making it a sadly difficult read.
Overall
While the story holds promise, I can't give this a higher rating. The writing simply isn't good or compelling enough for me to. It's very sad, too, as the premise is very interesting, and well worth exploring.
Review by: John of Sift Book Reviews
Sift Book Reviews received a free copy for review from the author. This has, in no way, affected the reviewer's opinion.
